After last July, I decided to clip my queens. so long as you don't clip too far down then the queen should not feel any pain so I've no qualms about clipping on that basis.

Yes, if I miss the swarm I'm most likely to lose the queen but keep my bees. If they go off as a swarm there's no guarantee about their safety- potentially a few thousand bees getting BBQ'd in a chimney if they do find a nice home then they've not much chance against varroa unless times really are changing on that front.